Good ol' Sally Brown
by novelist24
Summary: Sally Brown is definitely one of the most unique of the Peanuts characters, so much so I think she deserves her own story. Sally's never been the best at school, or taking responsibility in general. So when she realises this, she takes it upon herself to improve, see things through, and become a better rounded person overall. Peanuts belongs to Charles. M. Schulz.
1. Chapter 1

**Hello there. So I was reading through the Peanuts strips and watching the cartoon and rewatched the movie, and I remembered how much I enjoyed the strip. But one thing that I always loved most about Peanuts was the character of Sally.**

 **I think she's such an underrated character and definitely one of the most unique in the comic strip, which is hard to be amongst the Peanuts characters. Out of all of them though she was the one that made me laugh the most and I just loved her personality. She can be intelligent when she wants to be but she has a lot of ditzy moments. And I'll probably get flack for this, but in my opinion, I think she's the best Peanuts character. Sally definitely sees the world in her own unique way and can also be a bit of a trouble-maker, though not intentionally mostly.**

 **She's mainly just lazy and doesn't have a lot of motivation, so I had a story idea for her coming to terms with this and wanting to better herself due to interactions with the others. And although she's going to be the main character in this fic, the others of the Peanuts gang are obviously and inevitably going to be in this too, and you'll see more of them as the fic goes on.**

 **Basically most of the comics, the cartoons, and the movie will be canon in this fic, and continue from all of that. All characters don't belong to me but to of course Charles .M. Schulz.**

Sunrise was slowly lifting over a sleepy neighbourhood. No doubt everyone would soon be up in a matter of thirty minutes once the sun had fully come up. Alarm clocks were going off all over the houses, though some were set to snooze. But in the room of the neighbourhood's 'favourite' child, good ol' Charlie Brown, it's inhabitant obeyed the ringing of the clock and accepted the fact it was time to get up.

The bald headed boy sat up, wiped his eyes, and with a slow rising feeling of dread, slid from the covers and began changing into his usual attire. He packed his bag and brushed his teeth, ready for the day ahead. However, good ol' Charlie Brown started to hear something from across the hall, something that sounded like the complete opposite to the dreary morning mood he was currently in. Glancing at the bathroom door, he had a thought of: 'Good grief, what could that possibly be?'

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A wardrobe opened and a hand slid through a number of blue and pink polkadot dresses. A blue one was picked, along with a small hair bow to accompany it. Little white shoes were laced up and the curtains were drawn letting in the morning sunlight. The door burst open and a little six year-old girl leapt and slid down the banister of the stairs toward the kitchen.

The fridge opened and was quickly relieved of several jars of peanut butter, jam and a tub of butter, whilst the pantry was too with bread and the cutlery drawer butter knives, all dumped upon the table.

First came a slice of bread, then the butter, the peanut butter, the jam, another slice of bread, and repeat. In the end it was four stacks high, though only a few bites were taken out of it as the girl realised she couldn't eat the whole thing she had created. Luckily for her, there was someone out asleep in the garden who would.

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 _The red Baron was so close in sight. He was right on his tail. This was probably the closest he'd ever come. There was no possible way the Baron could get out of his grasp now. He was about to fire, he would do it! He would actually do it! This was it! He would beat the red Baron! He would-, wait, what was that smell? No, the Baron was trying to distract him, he was using something against the flying Ace. He was slipping away, he was-_

Snoopy woke on top his kennel, a look of frustration on his face and making a 'drat!' expression with his arm. But that smell from his dream was still there, what was that smell-, he looked down and by the side of his kennel to see a peanut butter and jam sandwich right beside it. A few bites out of it but still, good enough. What a pleasant surprise to wake up to. He rubbed his hands together, but then a familiar yellow face landed on his nose, who too eyed up the sandwich. It and snoopy eyed each other, ready for a battle over the prize.

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The cheerful young Sally Brown practically skipped through her house, something she could rarely do with rope. Taking a number of all sorts of play objects, including said rope, she rushed towards the front door, skimming past ol' Charlie Brown leaving him very confused.

"Are you ready for another spectacular day of summer big brother?" she asked in her joyful high pitched tone.

"Uh, Sally?" her brother tried to say.

"Isn't it just wonderful! A whole 'nother day of fun and no work! Another day of endless days to do absolutely nothing!" she proclaimed opening the front door stepping straight outside. "And to figure out how half of this stuff works of course" she referred to the things in her hands.

"But Sally-" Charlie Brown attempted again.

"Now, what to do first? Hmm," Sally picked up a frisbee, before quickly throwing it behind her perfectly, clearly disinterested in it. Then she picked up a paddle-ball, something she was beginning to like because it was easy, but not this time, she put it down and grabbed-, ah ha, the skipping rope. She smiled intently as she gripped it. "I'm finally gonna conquer you, you futile piece of junk!"

She placed the rope behind her, and readied to jump, however, before she did something stopped her. Was it her, or did the air seem, cooler? She glanced up at the tree, and the leaves didn't seem all that green. Maybe the tree was sick? Could trees get sick? Some leaves were turning yellow and brown and red and-, wait. Oh no.

Sally suddenly felt a clenching feeling rising from the pit of her stomach. Her legs turned to jelly and for a minute she couldn't see straight. It wasn't, was it?

Hurriedly she rushed back inside, straight past her big brother again and climbed up onto a stool in the kitchen. Breathing heavily her eyes scanned over the kitchen calendar as her worst fear came true. She pleaded with herself that she was just seeing things but no, there it was clear as day. It was a school day. The first school day of the year.

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"Sally? Sally? Are you alright? You have to get up."

The blonde girl opened her blurry eyes to see her brother standing over her looking concerned. A backpack on his shoulders.

"Huh? What-, where am I? What happened?"

"You fell off the stool and passed out for ten minutes" he told her. "C'mon we have to hurry up, we'll be late for the first day of school."

Sally could've almost passed out again when he said that. "The first day of school. The first day of school!" she repeated, the second time being a bit more louder. "Is judgement day upon me at last? It can't be that time already? I'm too young for this kind of fate big brother!" she whined grabbing his shirt.

"Actually Sally, you're exactly the right age to start first grade. It's no big deal, I had to go through it, look how I turned out." Charlie Brown turned and walked away, leaving Sally with a bewildered stare.

"That was an attempt at encouragement was it?" she questioned him.

"Look Sally, it's only first grade on the first day. All you ever learn about are each other's names and how a regular day usually goes. Here, I packed your bag for you. Though, you might wanna brush your teeth first" advised her brother after she had just tried to eat a four-stacked peanut butter and jam sandwich.

"They should've arranged the whole gregorian calendar to a better structure" complained the girl getting up and walking to the stairs. A real unhappy look on her face. "If anything, by inconveniencing me with the wrong date, they should give me this one off. Sort of as a, composition" Sally declared heading up the stairs.

"You mean compensation" Charlie Brown tried to say as his dog came up to him, a frisbee wedged in his forehead.

"She'll be alright boy, she just needs some getting used to. I have a feeling this'll be a really great changing year for her."

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The Brown siblings stepped outside their house and began their journey for the bus stop, with Sally still wearing the same expression as she did before. Her brother more or less had an indifferent one. The only remark Sally ever made on this journey was that she stated she was only going because of the lunches mom had made them. The rest of the journey she was oddly quiet. In fact in some quick glances, Charlie Brown could swear he saw that she was actually very scared. Ah but that was normal. Of course anyone would be nervous on their first day of anything. But with Sally she tended to let her nerves about school go to the extreme. She was clutching her books in her hands so tight that her knuckles turned white.

At last they reached the bus stop, where two other siblings, the Van-pelts, were already waiting, not looking too pleased themselves, but still better than how Sally was portraying herself right now. These were Linus and Lucy Van-Pelt. Schoolmates and close friends to the Brown children.

"Hello Linus. Hello Lucy" greeted Sally's brother.

"Hello Charlie Brown" replied Linus in a less than cheerful tone. He was still clutching his blue blanket like always, as it had only been a year and was still not quite ready to grow out of it yet.

Sally didn't even acknowledge the other two, more or less just stood by the side of Lucy as still as a board with a thousand yard stare.

Lucy Van-Pelt, being the tormentor she was, noticed the demeanor in the blonde girl and remembering from last time, could not help but lean over and whisper: "First grade." And almost immediately the girl shot up like a rocket only for the other three stand and witness. "Hm, twenty feat this time" observed the raven-head.

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The bus arrived and Sally reluctantly stepped aboard sitting in the first available seat. There would've been a time when she would've sat next to Eudora, but ever since she moved away she had to make do with sitting on her own most of the time. Sometimes she would sit with her brother and her sweet Baboo, but today Charlie Brown sat with Linus on a two seater. Lucy, who inevitably tried to sit next to Schroeder, wasn't able to because luckily for him Franklin got there first, much to her displeasure, and in the end she was forced to keep Sally company for the bus ride. It wasn't long 'til the two began talking.

"I don't get it. You just forgot about fall like that?" Lucy asked.

"It all just goes in a blur. One big blur. One minute you're relaxing watching TV, playing paddle-ball, eating at a barbeque, chasing Linus, the next, they send you for life behind those fence bars until the next summer" Sally made a gesture with both her arms.

"Lucy, if I die, can you make sure my headstone reads: Here lies Sally Brown, and she's real cheesed off!" Sally folded her arms again.

"If I die" Lucy finally said "I'd like to be buried at sea."

"Well you're alright then, there's a reservoir not far from here."

A few seats back, Charlie Brown and Linus were engaged in a conversation of their own. "So how's the ol' pen pal doing Charlie Brown?" Linus winked at him.

"Oh Heather's getting on very well at summer camp. She comes back this week, I almost can't wait! She told me all the things she did at summer camp, and her grandmother's doing well. And speaking of doing well, how's Janice?"

"Oh much better Charlie Brown! Much better! She told me about her sisters, and how they're much more forgiving of her once they understood the full situation" Linus beamed at the thought of his old brave friend. "And do you know what? She said in a letter that she could visit again in a couple of weeks! Around about the same time the baseball final happens."

Janice and her family had to move away too. The reason being her parents could no longer afford for her to go to their school because of the payments for her treatment, all that while ago back when she was diagnosed with leukemia. But very fortunately and very thankfully she recovered from it. She was now at a slightly cheaper school along with her sisters, which she told Linus about in her letters to him, and how although she did prefer it at her old school, this current one was still okay. She was quite upset about having to move. Just before she left she hugged Linus and kissed him on the cheek, telling him she would've never gotten through her illness if not for him. That he just had a way about him of helping people see something through to the end.

"Perhaps if our team makes it to the final, I could score a home run for her to see. I could be a hero to her Charlie Brown! Just imagine, her coming home to see our team win!"

Charlie Brown's attitude then became the opposite of Linus's cheerful optimistic one. "The baseball team, how am I going to train and lead the team that far?" he slanted forward resting his head in his palm.

"Don't worry Charlie Brown, we've gone quite far before, and this isn't a major tournament or anything. Not like in the summer, or that time Sally was born and you had to push her around in her stroller" encouraged Linus punching his friend on the shoulder.

This did actually make his paranoid friend smile a bit. "Hm, I can see what Janice meant now by what she said."

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There was a different smell to this classroom than her old one. The smell of the chalkboard was still present, as was in any classroom. But the pictures on the walls were vastly different, and so much more complicated. All these shapes and diagrams and punctuation symbols. Sally sat at the desk with her name on it. Placed her books inside of it and tapped her fingers nervously.

She had no idea what to expect. What would this new teacher be like? Will they be nice? Will they be mean? She hoped they wouldn't be mean. Would she have to do scientific equations now that she was in first grade? Would there be more homework? Will there be endless streams of lines they would have to write every lesson? She began to shake in her seat and look around. The worst thing of all, definitely the worst thing of all, was that she didn't know anybody. She was all alone. Not since Eudora moved away. Other kids then started to enter and take their seats as well, ready to begin the lesson.

'Okay. Big Brother said all you do on the first day is learn each other's names and what an average day will be like. What you do now sets the course of what the rest of the year will be like.'

A noise sounded, directly at Sally, snapping her out of it. "Huh? What?"

The noise sounded again asking Sally of her name. Panicked, Sally thought of the first name that came to her head. "Uh, Willem Dafoe."

The class started laughing, making Sally bury her head in her desk. 'Great, this is definitely a warning of things to come.'

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It was home time, much to everyone's, but mainly youngest Brown's, relief. The school bus dropped the siblings as well as the Van-pelts off, and after parting ways with them, Charlie Brown and his sister entered their house.

"So how was it?" asked the thoughtful brother, though her slouched posture and facial expression explained it all.

"Big brother is it possible to reframe and rearrange the entire American education system and curriculum?" she started with.

"Well maybe but that would take a lot of time money and legal action" replied Charlie Brown setting down his bag.

"The things that you want so badly never happen and if they do they take forever. And things you want to never end feel like they didn't even happen at all! Summer had ended today, how was I to know?" she whined in typical Sally fashion.

"Didn't you suspect anything when we bought all that back-to-school equipment last week?" asked Charlie Brown sitting on the beanbag chair.

"I wasn't there remember, I was too busy at home trying to figure out how to get the wallpaper of my room back up before mom or dad saw it" she flopped down the opposite side of the beanbag. "Today was horrible. I couldn't grasp anyone's names, not even my own. By the end of today I ended up being half of A-list hollywood."

"Are you going to stick it out this time? Or are you just going to give up on everything like last year?" Charlie Brown questioned one final time.

"I don't know big brother, whichever is easiest. And so what if I give up now? Who cares? What I don't worry about, can't hurt me."


	2. Chapter 2

It was lunch time on the playground. Violet and Patty were on the see-saw. Shermy and Franklin were in a game of kickball with Marcie and Peppermint Patty. Schroeder was sat under a tree with his piano trying his best to replicate a Beethoven symphony. Linus and Lucy were on the swings, and as for ol' Charlie Brown, he was busy on the baseball field on his own practising his pitches, trying not to flinch every time he threw it, as he always he expected it to come straight back at him knocking everything off but his boxers.

Of course it never did but he still breathed a sigh of relief every time. Either way, this was all pointless. He knew there wasn't a chance in heck his team would get to the final. And this was only a fall tournament. The summer one would be even bigger. Even scarier.

He sighed as he stood there on the field. The only times where his team ever won was when he was absent. And as far as his schedule was, let's just say they were doomed.

"Still practicing Charlie Brown?"

The bald headed boy turned his head to the voice. After so many attempts at trying to win her affection, Charlie Brown was finally at a point where the little red-haired girl was at last talking to him, and on a regular basis. She had arrived back home from summer camp just a few weeks ago and had been hanging out with her penpal more often. All of the other kids were amazed how Charlie Brown managed to achieve it, especially Lucy, who kept saying it wouldn't last. But nevertheless, the little red-haired girl was still here. She walked up to the pitcher's base where he was standing.

"Oh, hello Heather" the biggest smile grew on his face. He finally had learned her name. "Yeah, still practicing. I just know my team can win one Heather. Sure we've won before, but all the times we have I've never been there. I would like to just once to be there when it happens."

"I remember a game when your team won" reminisced the little red-haired girl. "It was Linus who threw the winning pitch."

"Yes and you ran up and hugged him" Charlie Brown reminded folding his arms.

The little red-haired girl blushed, rather embarrassed at that. "I kinda got caught up in the moment" she said with her hands behind her back playing with the ground with her shoe.

"Either way" Charlie Brown sighed. "I'd like to be there, just once. You'll see. Linus Van-Pelt. Lucy Van-Pelt. There will come the day when it'll be a Brown that leads the team to victory" he gestured throwing the ball again. "Without it being a forfeit of course."

The little red-haired girl stepped onto the pitcher's mound with him. "I have a good feeling about this year you kno-, look out!" she pointed and both children ducked as the ball went flying past back at them. "Yeah, I have a good feeling about this year" she resumed putting a hand on his shoulder. "You'll win both this tournament, and the one in the summer."

"Well, you did start to write and talk to me, so maybe my luck is changing" Charlie Brown figured making the little red-haired girl giggle.

"Oh I'm sure."

"Did you come up to me to wish me good luck?" asked the boy.

"Yes, partly. There's, something also I wanted to talk to you about" the little red-haired girl revealed.

"Oh really? What's that?"

"It's, about your sister. She doesn't look too happy."

"Sally? What makes you say that? I mean I know how she is with school and everything, but she always ends up getting used to it in the end."

"Look at her" pointed the little red-haired girl.

On the other side of the playground, Charlie Brown could see his sister sat on a bench on her own. Her head in her hand and throwing crumbs from her lunch bag to a bunch of pigeons on the floor, and even from this distance, she looked rather depressed. For a brief moment one of the pigeons flew up next to her. Sally saw this and tried to pet it, but it just ended up flying in her face and flapping away, leaving her to resume feeding the others.

"Hm, I didn't think it was this bad." Charlie Brown looked down at his baseball bat that laying close by on the floor, and reached down to pick it up. "Will you look after this please?" he handed it to the little red-haired girl. "I'd better go and talk to her."

"I knew you would" the red-haired girl gave a loving smile taking the bat.

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All the pigeons had left by now. Sally had ran out of crumbs. She merely just continued to stare at the ground with her head in her hands not saying a word.

"Are you okay there Sally?"

The blonde saw out the corner of her eye her concerned looking sibling walk over to her. "Hello big brother" she melancholily uttered as he sat next to her on the bench.

Charlie Brown decided to not ask directly, but rather warm up to what the problem was. "I was just practicing my throws over there. I admit baseball can get pretty frustrating at times."

"Mm-hm" was all his sister said back, not looking up at him.

"Still, not as frustrating as that pop quiz we had the other day. Sure was tough. I bet you didn't have anything like that" he phrased this as more of a question, which Sally caught onto.

She sighed. "No, we didn't have a quiz big brother." She finally looked up to face him. "We were learning about European history today, and the teacher asked me what the capital of Germany was. To which I responded: 'that's a very philosophical question.' Do you mean capital where the government building is located and where legislation is passed? Or do you mean the German capital of architecture, and arts? Or it's industry capital?"

She continued. "And it gets even deeper when you consider that Germany wasn't always Germany but a confederation with Prussia, and before that the Holy Roman Empire. So I didn't know what she was asking me."

"And then what happened?" pressed her brother.

"She put me in the corner for 'attitude.'" Sally placed her head back in her hands.

"Well you know Sal, some teachers just like a straight answer."

"Yeah, it's those I'm not good at." She sighed again and shook her head. "Y'know big brother, I don't think I'm gonna make it this year." She shook her head. "No one in my class wants to work with me, or pair up with me during group activities. The teacher had to make some of them work with me reluctantly. As you can tell it was very awkward."

She saw her lunch bag and picked it up, beginning to go through it. "Here big brother you can have my pop tart, I don't want it." She slid off the bench and headed to the building.

"Where are you going?" called out Charlie Brown worriedly.

Sally stopped and looked over her shoulder. "Uh, well nowhere. I just feel like walking around a bit that's all." She carried on until she was out of her brother's sight.

Charlie Brown looked down at the pop tart in his hand. It was taking longer than expected for her to adjust and fit in to her new surroundings. And it didn't help that Eudora was gone either. She definitely had potential though, a lot of potential. Maybe if she just started talking and socializing just a bit more, perhaps she could grow a bit of confidence. Maybe she wouldn't be as depressed as she is now. He knew what it was like to be depressed, and he would never wish that upon Sally. The question was, what would enable her to do that?

He took off his baseball cap and scratched his head. What could help her gain the self-confidence she needed? Something that would help her focus. He paused, and gazed at the cap in his hand. He then smiled. He knew exactly what that would be.

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Walking across the playground and onto a patch of grass, the little blonde girl approached the side of the school building, examining it over before sitting down beside the wall. She stayed silent for a couple of seconds twiddling her thumbs not quite sure what to say. Eventually she had the right words she wanted to ask her old confident. "Were there, others like me?" she asked the building.

"I mean, I can't be the only one who didn't fit in well with their class? What kid doesn't get nervous starting a new year? But, were there any others who, didn't particularly get on well at all? Who through their whole school life, never really achieved a lot or made any significant group of friends? It's just, I don't want to set a record or anything. And I'm worried that's exactly what I'm going to end up doing. There must've been other kids right? Who had really hard times in classes, and never got good grades?"

The school building as usual didn't say anything back. It just stood there as still as ever. Sally frowned and leaned her head against the wall. She didn't know why she always came here for comfort, she never received any. But as she was referring to, who else could she go to for any type of advice other than a building? Perhaps it was because a building was silent and therefore gave her time to think for herself, whereas whenever she asked her brother or Linus or anyone else, her mind tended to fade out as they were replying to her.

"You're part of the building that holds second graders aren't you?" Sally looked up at it again. "They're a whole year ahead of me and I bet most of them are just as unachieving as I am." She hugged her knees. "Y'know, I've read lots of stories of, whaddacallem, war veterinarians, who were naughty at school and yet received medals for acts of heroism and bravery even though they-"

Sally suddenly stopped her monologue and smiled. She had come to a conclusion. "Yeah that's it! I'm only in first grade! Failing at something this year or even the next two years can't hurt me. There are plenty of people who didn't do well at school and still achieved things, just like those veterinarians. The way I see it, I've got whole year of not having to worry at all. Thanks building. I appreciate the help" Sally said as she stood up and headed back in the direction of the playground. She had a look on her face. A look that seemed quite contempt, as if a huge weight was just lifted off her shoulders

The building was there, left to ponder other what the girl had just concluded, as it thought: 'Yes but the thing is a lot of veterinarians got those medals sadly after losing a limb or far worse.'

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Charlie Brown stepped into his living room to see his sister at her usual place on the beanbag chair in front of the television, not doing anything remotely proactive as per the norm. He knew getting her to agree to what he was about to propose was going to be a long task, one he didn't expect to complete by today. It would have to take a lot of persuasion and maybe bribery if necessary for her to comply.

He approached her from behind and spoke up. "Hey Sally. Feeling any better?"

"Yep."

"Well never mind- you are?"

"I had a long talk with someone. And now, I feel like my old self again" she proclaimed as she nestled comfortably in the beanbag.

"Hm yes. That's exactly what I was afraid of. Don't you ever get, y'know, restless?"

"Nope."

It was clear to Charlie Brown that he was probably only going to get one-word answers out of her.

"What about fitting in, getting along with others and all that you said before?" he persisted.

"I don't need to have all that to be successful big brother."

"Hm. You'll definitely find it hard though. It's like this problem I have. You see, I've got enough players for my team this fall, well almost anyway. I'm just one short. I would've asked Heather, but she's not one for baseball. So I now have to find a new player."

"Then I suggest you go head hunting somewhere else big brother" Sally said knowing what he was going to suggest. "I have no time for something as silly as baseball."

"It's not silly Sally. It requires attention, accuracy, and relying on-, okay maybe it isn't exactly your sport. But hey, it'll give you a chance to build on all those."

"So you're saying if I play one game of baseball I'll immediately achieve all that?" she slightly turned her head.

"Well not just at _one_ particular game" answered her brother looking at the floor his arm resting on the beanbag chair. "It'll take a while of training and coming to practice for a few weeks first, before you can finally-" when he looked up to face her, he discovered that she was already gone.

She nonchalantly walked back into the living room with a cup and slumped back down. "Sorry, I faded out at the word 'one'."

"So you're not coming to baseball practice?" Charlie Brown said defeatistly.

"You've got more chance of finding out where that lord Lucas disappeared to."

Charlie Brown sighed. "Well, alright" he turned as an idea came into his head. He headed down the hall. "It's a shame really. All the others would've been delighted to see you there. Lucy, Schroeder, Pig-pen, Patty, Violet."

He approached the door as he turned away from her. "Even Linus will be there at the practices." He opened the door to see Sally standing right there, wearing a baseball cap, a glove and carrying a baseball bat.

"Well what are we waiting for big brother! C'mon, we got a practice to go to!"

Charlie Brown looked back in amazement to find the beanbag chair empty, as he could've sworn she was there just now. He wasn't even going to question how she did that.

 **Hello everyone. I'm sorry I didn't think it would take a month to update this. Very late. But nevertheless, here's the second chapter of Good ol' Sally Brown. I'll try to be a bit quicker next time. Y'know looking back through the strips I don't think Sally's ever been on her brother's baseball team, at least not for very long anyway. Correct me if I'm wrong on that. Anyway I hope you guys enjoy this one. See you soon.**

 **Oh and don't worry Snoopy _._**

 **I know Lucy, and most of the others too are great characters in their own right, I just wanted to do a story with the spotlight on Sally, as I thought that would be interesting.**

 **Peanuts belongs to Charles. M. Schulz.**


	3. Chapter 3

On the way to the baseball field, Sally never ceased in asking her brother question upon question every five minutes or so. It was usually something along the lines of:

"How do you score a run big brother?"

"You run, Sally" he would respond with.

"How do you know when the ball's coming towards you?"

"When you're batting, you'll see the pitcher throw it."

"When does the game end?"

"When both sides have played."

"Do we get any money for this?"

"No."

Sally slumped and continued walking, eventually arriving at the field her brother's team would practice on. She peered through the metal fence.

"Hm, looks like we're the first ones here big brother. Wow, they've really thinned out the batting cage haven't they?"

"Uh Sally, that's the football field."

She turned to see her sibling by the gate of another pitch. "Baseball's over here."

She stared on for a second before recomposing. "I know." She walked on through and Charlie Brown followed.

She glanced around to see most of the kids on her brother's team either on the bench or talking elsewhere amongst each other. She walked over to the bench still with the baseball bat over her shoulder and a cap on her head, which caused the others to notice.

"Sally? What are you doing here? Wait, are you on the team now?" Lucy questioned, completely stunned.

The blonde turned and put on a smug and very big smile. "Yep. I'm volunteering."

"And Charlie Brown let you?"

"Big brother said he needed an extra team member. So in my utmost sense of generosity, I offered my services."

"Can you even play?" wondered Lucy, still slightly in disbelief.

"Pfft, of course I can" Sally assured waving her hand dismissively. "I've watched all of you guys play it so much that I'm practically an expert! So, where do we place the bets?"

Lucy slumped back down on her seat. Charlie Brown must be more of a blockhead than she thought if he let her on the team.

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"Hey Charlie Brown" greeted Linus as his friend walked up to him.

"Hi Linus. Listen, I've solved the problem of finding an extra team member" Charlie Brown informed.

"Really? Who d'ya get?" asked Linus, but then got his answer when he heard the words faintly getting louder:

"Sweet Baboo! Oh sweet Babboooooo!"

Linus looked at Charlie Brown with an 'are you serious' expression to which he only could smile nervously as his sister zoomed up to them, all smiley and giggly. Visible love hearts popping around her.

"Hiiiiiiii Linus. I've just joined the baseball team" she put her hands behind her back swaying side to side digging her shoe into the ground.

"So I see. Well, I do hope you can make a valid contribution Sally" he encouraged deciding to still be civil.

"It'll no doubt increase her focus and self-confidence about succeeding-"

"So Linus," Sally interrupted her brother. "What position are you playing in?"

"Depends, what position _you_ playing in?" he backed off a bit.

"Well we're starting soon so we'd better get going haven't we?" Charlie Brown ended the awkward situation. He decided it was best to put Sally on the bench first and call her out onto the field later. Lucky this was only a practice session, they weren't actually playing against anyone.

There was still enough time for Charlie Brown to worry about failing the autumn tournament.

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As the practice games went on, Sally started to become more involved. Each player would take a turn pitching and batting, and so it went a little like this:

"Sally! The ball's coming towards you!" shouted Shermy.

"I got it! I got it!" She missed it by a mile as it landed on the grass.

"I got it! I got it!"

"Sally it's on the floor-"

"I got it! I got it!" she still kept running around looking for it in the air.

Sally threw ball on the pitcher's mound as hard as she could only for a 'boink' sound to be heard and resulted in her jumping up and down celebrating. "Yay! I did it! I did it!"

"Sally what are you doing?" Charlie Brown ran up to her nearly shouting.

She stopped jumping, staring at the batter and back at her brother confused. "We're not supposed to knock him out?" she pointed.

The girl was at the bat, gripping it in her hands and tapping the ground with it several times. 'Ok Sally' she thought to herself. 'You're gonna hit a whopping home run, and not gonna get any strikes' she stared down the pitcher. 'You're gonna make an impression, and show everyone what you got-'

Ten seconds later she walked past Charlie Brown on the bench defeatistly and tossed him the bat. "Your turn big brother."

It wasn't going very well. So much so that the other members of Charlie Brown's team were all beginning to let him know of their discontent.

"Charlie Brown you have to take her off, there's no way we'll win the tournament with her on the team" vented Lucy who was sat next to him on the bench.

"I gotta admit, she hasn't shown any signs of improvement, and this is just practice!" Schroeder pointed out.

"I only wanted to help boost her confidence, as she was feeling pretty down recently with the new school year" the team captain rested his head in his hands.

"That's a nice gesture in all Charlie Brown, but, could you help her through, something else maybe? No offence, but boosting her confidence has promptly drained ours" continued Schroeder.

"C'mon guys I can't ask her to leave, she'll be so upset. She really seems to be into this now and-"

"She's asleep on the pitcher's mound" pointed Franklin.

They all looked over to see the blonde girl face down snoring in the dirt.

"Okay, I'll make a compromise. I'll keep her on the bench for most games, only bringing her in when absolutely needed. If she does come in and doesn't do particularly well, then it won't matter because you guys will play your best and help win the game. Okay? Is that fair?" offered Charlie Brown, and the other two thought about it before nodding and agreeing that was a fair deal.

"Welp, I'd better take her home. Snoopy!" Charlie Brown called out and the beagle came sauntering onto the pitch, biting a part of Sally's dress, and dragging off the filed towards home.

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In class the next day, Sally Brown was straining her attention span once more in order to listen to what the teacher had to say. It was something very important too.

"A test? At the end of the term?"

The teacher spoke again.

"Pfft, no big deal" the blonde dismissed leaning back in her chair. Why worry about something this minute when she had plenty of years of education that would be full of much bigger and much more important tests to come?

'Why worry about something this year when you can worry about it in the next? That,' she thought, 'is going to be my new philosophy.'

She heard the teacher's voice and shifted back into place.

"Yes ma'am I'll sit up."

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"C'mon you stupid-," Sally tangled with her skipping rope wrapped around her entire body. "Why won't you just skip-?" she tripped in the struggle and fell onto her back. "Maybe that's why it's called a skipping rope" she said calmly. "IT SKIPS THE FUN PART!"

"Shouldn't you be studying for your test?" asked her brother walking past her bedroom door, not even side glancing at her.

"I'll study when I'm dead."

"Then you won't be able to study."

The girl sat up bewildered. "Is irony too hard for you to decipher big brother? That's the point! No wonder you always get tangled up in ridiculous situations."

Snoopy then came up to Sally's side and sat down. "What do you want?" she questioned.

The beagle just simply got up and walked away on all fours. 'Jeez, what's her problem?' he thought looking back at her and heading out into the yard, sitting himself atop his kennel.

Glancing around as if he was missing something, he uttered a small calling noise, very high pitched, and one person heard it. Little Woodstock flew from the sky and chirped at Snoopy asking what he wanted.

Snoopy pointed in front of him and Woodstock got what he meant. He flew into the kennel tossing a few things out before bringing out a typewriter, dropping it in front of the beagle.

Snoopy smiled and was just about to begin typing when Woodstock chirped again, rather annoyed about something. Snoopy rolled his eyes and reached into his pocket, pulling out a coin and tossing it to Woodstock. The yellow bird chirped thankfully and flew off, leaving Snoopy to begin his writing.

 _The fearless flying Ace once again was preparing to set off on another daring mission. Unlike before, he was not too keen to fly out and engage in a thrilling dogfight with the central powers, now that he had someone in his life to return home to. The beautiful aviator and fellow beagle, Fifi, whom he had rescued on a previous daring mission against his old foe: the red Baron._

 _He could not stand the thought of leaving his beloved, and never return home. But alas, duty came first. Duty to the allied cause. So in order to return to his gal in one piece, the flying Ace decided it was time to retrain._

 _The biplane zoomed through the clouds at top speed, targets all in sight. Target number one: no problem, shot that down easy. Target number two: piece of cake. Target number three: about to be blasted into-,_

 _Wait, the engine. It was failing! The flying Ace plummeted. The ground was coming at him at a deathly rate. Thankfully, the Ace always kept with him a spare parachute in case of situations like this, and ejected from the plane just in time._

 _As he floated down, he stared at his team of pit crew birds since they were the ones who were supposed to take care of the engine. However all the little Woodstocks pointed at the tail of the scattered plane, and to the flying Ace's horror, he saw that it was not the engine, but he had been hit by another plane's machine gun._

 _You see, the target planes he had hit were all being piloted by members of his bird pit crew, so they could easily fly away to safety once he had hit them. They were never supposed to hit him. He looked up at the bird flying the biplane that got him, and said bird was embarrassingly hiding away in the cockpit, blushing._

 _But still, the flying Ace shouldn't' of let his guard down. He should've prepared, he should've been ready, he-_

Woodstock chirped again at Snoopy, gaining his attention. The bird pointed that he was out of paper and held out his wing. Snoopy rolled his eyes reaching into pocket again and tossing Woodstock another coin. The bird chirped happily and brought his friend a new stack of paper.

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Charlie Brown stuck to his compromise. He kept his little sister on the bench until the very end which by that time their team had already scored more than enough runs to win. And whenever they were fielding she was always put far out of the pitch. Sally didn't seem to care much or really take notice that she was deliberately being taken out of the main action. She only came anyway as an excuse to see Linus.

Regardless, this didn't stop ol' Charlie Brown from feeling guilty about it. He did contemplate once or twice giving Sally a bigger role, but like he said to the little red-haired girl, he really wanted to win this time, and the autumn tournament was going really well for them. Pretty much most of team played their best. Franklin, Lucy, Schroeder, Linus, Peppermint Patty, Shermy, Pig-pen.

It also probably had something to do with the little red-haired girl watching them in the bleachers, which gave Charlie Brown the encouragement and motivation to really win and impress her, just as Linus was counting on Janice coming to see the final if the team made it that far. And at the rate they were going, the possibility seemed likely. They even made it to the quarter-finals.

On the way to the game, Charlie Brown tried to inquire once more about his sister's education.

"So how 'bout that test of yours coming up Sally? Been studying for it?" he already knew the answer to this.

"Nah, it's only a first grade test on angles and, whaddacallit? Geology. There's no point working hard to pass it. I mean, people only gratify hard work because they had no alternative. If they had an easy option they definitely would've taken it. For example some people praise raking leaves instead of using a leaf blower, _only_ because they never had the chance to use a leaf blower and feel snubbed. Why would you do something time consuming and rewardless when you can get it done just like that?" she clicked her fingers.

"Well I agree with that in terms of chores like raking leaves and washing dishes, but this is a test Sally, something that can hold consequences for your future. Okay maybe not this test in particular, but others to come."

"That bridge will cross when it comes to it big brother. Now, is there anything else you'd like to lecture me on?" she asked annoyed.

"Actually yes. Mom and dad said that if we make it to the final, they'd take the whole team for burgers and takeout! And ice cream too! Regardless if we win or not."

This got the girl's attention. "Takeout! Ice cream! Takeout and ice cream with my sweet Babboo! Oh! It'll be just like a date!" she swooned, clasping her hands together drifting off.

" _If_ we make it to the final. Oh and Sally," Charlie Brown tried to call but she had already ran ahead to the pitch. "I think Linus is planning on taking Janice!"

 **So here's the next part of Good ol' Sally Brown! I hope it didn't feel like not much happened in this chapter, especially after being away for so long. I know 'it's been a while' is obligatory and a theme for me now but yeah, sorry for not updating. This chapter is more or less the setup for the baseball game next chapter. And sorry again on anything inaccurate about baseball, it's not played in my country.**

 **I really enjoy writing Sally, she's such a fun interesting cute character, if I hadn't made that clear already.**

 **Peanuts belongs to Charles M Schulz.**


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